Meade LNT Instruction Manual download pdf (Page 14)

Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the Sun.

Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.

Choosing an Eyepiece

A telescope’s eyepiece magnifies the light gathered by the optical tube. Each eyepiece has a

focal length, expressed in millimeters, or “mm.” The smaller the focal length, the higher the

magnification. For example, an eyepiece with a focal length of 9mm has a higher magnification

than an eyepiece with a focal length of 25mm.

Your telescope comes supplied with a low-powered 25mm or 26mm eyepiece which gives a

wide, comfortable field of view with high image resolution. Always begin your observations with

this eyepiece.

Low power eyepieces offer a wide field of view, bright, high-contrast images, and eye relief dur-

ing long observing sessions. After an object is located and centered in the eyepiece, try switch-

ing to a higher power eyepiece to enlarge the image.

NOTE:

Viewing conditions vary from night-to-night and from site-to-site. Turbulence in

the air, even on an apparently clear night, can distort images. If an image appears

fuzzy and ill-defined, return to a lower power eyepiece for a more well-resolved image.

The power, or magnification of a telescope is determined by the focal length of the telescope

and the focal length of the eyepiece being used. To calculate eyepiece power, divide the tele-

scope's focal length by the eyepiece's focal length. For example, you may wish to use a 25mm

eyepiece with the DS-2000 model DS-2114S. Look up the focal length of the DS-2114S under

SPECIFICATIONS: DS-2114S, page 33. The focal length is listed as 1000mm.

Telescope focal length divided by Eyepiece focal length = Eyepiece power

1000 v 25 = 40

The eyepiece power, or magnification is therefore 40X (approximately).

The Barlow Lens

Some Meade telescopes include a power multiplier called a Barlow lens. Consisting of a lens

mounted in a 4"-long (10cm) tube, the Barlow doubles or triples the power obtained when an

eyepiece is used alone. In the example above, a 25mm eyepiece results in 40X magnification

with the DS-2114S telescope; when this same eyepiece is used in conjunction with a 2x Barlow

lens, power is doubled to 80X. To use the Barlow, insert it into the diagonal prism (

refractor

models only

) or eyepiece holder, followed by the eyepiece.

OBSERVING

Observing by Moving the Telescope Manually

If you wish to observe a distant land object, such as a mountain top or a bird, you can observe

by merely pointing the telescope and looking through the eyepiece.

1. Loosen the telescope’s tripod base lock knob (26, Fig. 1) and Altitude lock (6, Fig. 1), so

that the telescope can move freely.

2. Point your telescope at distant street signs, mountains, trees, and other structures. Use

Smartfinder to help site-in on an object.

3. Center the object using Smartfinder and then in the telescope eyepiece. When the object

is centered in your eyepiece, re-tighten the base and Altitude locks.

4. Practice focusing objects with the focus knob (1, Fig. 1).

5. Once you get a feel for how your telescope moves and focuses, try to view something

more challenging, like a bird or a distant moving train.

You can also observe stars and objects in the night sky using this method, but note that objects

begin to slowly drift across the eyepiece field. This motion is caused by the rotation of the Earth.

As you become familiar with the Autostar handbox operation, you can counteract the drift using

the automatic tracking feature in the Autostar Setup menu (see

TO TRACK AN OBJECT AUTO-

MATICALLY, page 18), or by using Autostar's GO TO capabilities (see GO TO SATURN, page 19).

Important Note: When

you look through your

telescope’s eyepiece,

the image might look

strange at first.

If you have a refracting

telescope, objects will

appear right-side-up, but

reversed left-for-right.

This will not make a

difference when

observing astronomical

objects, and in fact, all

astronomical telescopes

present inverted images.

During terrestrial observ-

ing, when a

corrected image (right-

side up and correct left-

for-right) is desirable, an

optional Meade 45°

Erecting Prism is

available. See the

OPTIONAL

ACCESSORIES, page

29, or consult the Meade

Telescope Catalog.

No means of correcting

the image is available for

reflecting telescopes—

the image will appear

upside down and

reversed left-for-right.

Fig. 15: 25mm and

9mm eyepieces.

1 2 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ... 47 48

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Meade LNT Instruction Manual Page 14

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